The Bixby Backstory
The Baupost Group, a well-known investment firm, purchased the Bixby Ranch (aka Jalama Cojo Ranch) in 2007 at the height of the real estate bubble. It is inconceivable that such a financial firm would have purchased the ranch for $134 million expecting to achieve their customary 20 percent annual rate of return by continuing to run a cattle operation. It undoubtedly had development objectives similar to those that have historically run rampant on the Gaviota Coast but have almost universally failed. The recent sale of the Ranch by Baupost to The Nature Conservancy was preceded by several little known but important events that hastened the sale.
The Gaviota Planning Advisory Committee (GavPAC) was a committee of stakeholders initiated by County Supervisor Doreen Farr and charged with updating the 1982 Local Coastal Plan for the Gaviota Coast. The 1982 Plan contained a unique development entitlement, the Agricultural Rural Clustering Ordinance (ARC), which applied only to Bixby Ranch. The ARC would have allowed for the development of up to 480 homes on the Bixby. Throughout the GavPAC debate on this issue, the ranch representative strongly supported the ARC. The GavPAC rejected the ARC in a series of votes, finding it wholly inappropriate with the rural character of the Gaviota Coast. The deletion of the ARC from the updated 2015 Gaviota Coast Plan was a serious setback for the development objectives of Baupost.
Baupost engaged in intentional and extensive land use violations including the plowing of five acres of the endangered Gaviota tarplant and the unpermitted construction of 36 water wells and miles of roads. The Gaviota Coast Conservancy alerted the Coastal Commission to the destruction of the Gaviota tarplant. The Coastal Commission finally gained the cooperation of Baupost and after six years of investigation and negotiations reached a settlement with Baupost in November. Baupost’s actions were extraordinary and showed ignorance and/or contempt for development regulations and community sentiment.
